What is the Church?

What is the Church?

If you made it to our Easter Worship Gathering last Sunday, thanks for coming! What a great morning that was. 😊

And to those who served, whether in

Kids Creek,

set-up,

bringing food,

leading music,

or helping us tear-down…

…THANK YOU!!! I felt myself driving away from Shell Rock Elementary full of love and pride for each and every person who served so selflessly on a holiday. Thank you so much for helping us create environments where anyone who comes on a Sunday can hear about the love of God seen through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Moving Ahead

In case you don’t know, Riverwood is moving our Sunday Worship Gatherings to the Bremer County Fairgrounds beginning April 22. And another move means more change! I’m so proud of how amazing my church family has “gone with the flow” after each of our previous moves: Civic Center to the WAVP to Shell Rock (and all of the one-time spots as well). But this move to the Droste building brings a new-to-us change: NOT HAVING TO SET-UP AND TEAR-DOWN EACH WEEK! (Ok, I guess I’m a little excited.)

While this is a very welcome change, it has made me realize one aspect of our identity as a church family is ending (at least for now). And this “identity change” potentially puts us at risk of forgetting who and what the church is.

So to remind myself (and anyone who reads this) of who God is calling us to be as Riverwood Church, I want to take a few weeks here on the blog to work through Riverwood’s definition of church. Because the definition of church shouldn’t change due to the type of building we meet in on Sundays or whether we set-up and tear-down or just walk in and flip on the lights.

If you’ve gone through Riverwood 101, you’ve heard our definition of church. But let me share it so we all are on the same page:

The Church is the redeemed people of God living on mission together under the headship of Jesus to live out the implications of the Gospel.

As the elders of Riverwood, Jeff and I want to take four-weeks to walk you through this definition. Our prayer is that this short series on “what is the Church” will help you gain a better perspective of the Church and Riverwood’s identity as a local expression of God’s global church.

So be ready to join us next Thursday right here on the blog as we look at the first phrase, “the redeemed people of God.”